HAGUE PEACE CONFERENCES OF 1899 AND 1907

Abstract

This chapter provides an insight of Hague Peace Conferences of 1899 and 1907. In 1899 and 1907 two international congresses known as The Hague Peace Conferences met at The Hague and gave rise to a voluminous set of international treaties. The Hague Regulations were inspired by the desire to diminish the evils of war, so far as military requirements permit (Preamble of Convention II). They refer to military necessity on several occasions. Two motives led to the subsequent conference. Firstly, the 1899 Conference did not execute all the tasks conferred upon it. Therefore, the Final Act proposed a subsequent conference to dispose of all unresolved issues. Secondly, general political developments called into question the success of the 1899 Conference, that is, whether its results had become the effective practice of States. The conferences were successful with respect to the peaceful settlement of international disputes, above all in defining the nature of arbitration and in codifying rules of procedure. This resulted in the conclusion of many bilateral arbitration agreements and many cases of successful international arbitration. The idea of a permanent international court was born at the conferences and was crowned by the establishment of the Permanent Court of International Justice in 1922.